Catherine
Winkworth was the foremost 19th century translator of German hymns into English.
Her translations, with alterations, are still the most widely used of any from
German and are used extensively in many denominational hymnals, especially in
Lutheran hymnals published in the United States.

Catherine Winkworth was born in No. 20, Ely
Place, Holborn, London, England, on September 13, 1827. In 1829, her parents
moved to Manchester while she was two as her father had a silk mill (possibly at
Macclesfield). Two of her sisters, Emily and Susanna, were left with their
grandmother Winkworth and her daughter, Eliza, at Islington.

When they followed their parents to
Manchester they had lessons from the Rev. William Gaskell, minister of Cross
Street Chapel, Manchester, and husband of the well-known novelist. Catherine
Winkworth lived most of her life in Manchester, England (the notable exception
was the year she spent in Dresden, Germany).

For nearly two years from January, 1848,
Catherine had a long period of ill-health.

In 1852, Catherine undertook active work
among the poor in the newly-established Sunday School & District Visiting
Society. She was regarded with extreme affection by the poor, and long
after she left the neighborhood, she used to receive occasional letters from
them.

During her time in Manchester, Catherine came
to know Chevalier Bunsen (Christian Karl Josias Bunsen, 1791-1860), who started Catherine & Susanna in
their literary work, and to whom Catherine dedicated her Lyra
Germanica (First Series).

Bunsen, the German ambassador to England, who presented her a
copy of Andachtsbuch, a German devotional book with German hymns, which
opened to treasures of German hymnody to her. She went on to publish two series
of Lyra Germanica, 1855 and 1858. The first series were 103 translations
from Bunsen's Versuch eines allgemeinen Gesang und Gebetbuchs, 1833,
which went to 23 editions; the second series contained 121 more translations
from the same book and was published in 12 editions.

Most of the winter of 1859 was spent by
Catherine and Susanna, at Malvern owing to illness. Catching a fresh chill,
Catherine had to stay on at Malvern till October, when they moved to Westen for
a change of air. They arrived home at Alderley in time for Christmas, 1859.

In February 1861, their father was taken
ill; this was the beginning of his complete breakdown in health, which obliged
him to give up his business, and ultimately led to the family leaving Thornfield, Alderley Edge, and moving to Clifton, a suburb of Bristol, in
October 1862. Here, she became active in promoting higher education for
women. This interest manifested itself in her translations from German of
biographies of two founders of sisterhoods for the poor and the sick: Life of
Pastor Fliedner, 1861, and Life of Amelia Sieveking, 1863.

Also in 1861, Susanna had a serious illness
which left her more or less of an invalid for some years. In spite of this
ill-health, the sisters continued with their translations of German works and
made several visits abroad.

In 1863, she came out with The Chorale Book for England,
which contained some of the earlier translations with their proper chorale
tunes. In 1869, she published Christian Singers of Germany, which
contained the biographies of German hymn writers, together with numerous hymns.
More than any other single person, she helped bring the German chorale tradition
to the English speaking world.

In 1870 she was made secretary of the
Committee to Promote the Higher Education of Women.

According to her niece, Catherine went to
Mornix near Geneva in 1878 where she joined Annie Shaen to help her in the care
of their nephew Frank Shaen, then an invalid. She arrived on June 17th, and on
the 21st they proceeded to Monnetiex in Savoy, France. On the morning of the 1st
of July she was suddenly attacked by a pain at the heart, and in half-an-hour
all was over. A few days later, Catherine was laid to rest in the corner of the
churchyard set aside for Protestants. In her memory her friends raised a sum
sufficient to endow two "Catherine Winkworth" scholarships for women
at the Bristol University College, and also to erect a memorial tablet to her in
Bristol Cathedral.

Dr. James Martineau said: "Her translations ... are
invariably faithful and, for the most part, both terse and delicate; and an
admirable art is applied to the management of complex and difficult
versification." "Miss Winkworth," says Dr. John Julian, Dictionary
of Hymnology, "although not the earliest of modern translators of
German into English, is certainly the foremost in rank and popularity. Her
translations are the most widely used of any from that language, and have had
more to do with the modern revival of the English use of German hymns than the
versions of any other writer." She
possessed great intellectual and social gifts, and was unusually gifted as a
translator of hymns.

Available on this site are the
Christmas Poems of Catherine Winkworth
(from my copies of the first and second series of
Lyra Germanica, and The Chorale Book For England). Note that the Savoy region was annexed to Italy, Switzerland
or France at various times between 1536 and 1860, most recently to France.

Christian Classics Ethereal
Library. Additional information from a biographical note about Catherine
Winkworth which was appended to a later version (Second Edition, 1961) of Lyra
Germanica by a niece [Page has disappeared]